Honour Is in Contentment

Life Before Oil in Ras Al-Khaimah (UAE) and Some Neighbouring Regions

William Lancaster author Fidelity Lancaster author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:De Gruyter

Published:16th Jun '11

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Honour Is in Contentment cover

Based on interviews and field research, the authors explore the sets of ideas Arab tribespeople from Ras Al-Khaimah had about tribe and community; social and economic networks, and jural contracts for livelihoods and profits; their uses of their environments; the moral relations of credit, debt and  labour; ruling; economic and political transformations; and ideas of regional history where conflicts were regarded as disputes over sets of ideas, and informal accounts of tribal and local histories. Their lively descriptions and explanations of life before oil portrayed tribal societies whose relationships were moral rather than political and were between jurally equal persons.  All lived from  their own resources;  'wealth' was material self-sufficiency; 'riches' the richness of social relationships. Political arenas were decentralised and underpinned by common cultural and moral values. Published sources give a wider context to these ideas and events which show the great complexity and differing perspectives of 'life before oil' in the Gulf.

ISBN: 9783110223392

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 1032g

621 pages